Bible study 42 – Genesis 42

The famine has reached Canaan and Hebron, so Jacob sends his remaining sons to the only place where there is still grain to be had: Egypt. You would think that some lowly bureaucrat would handle this simple exchange of money and grain, but somehow they end up meeting with the most powerful man in Egypt, namely Joseph. Although they don’t recognize him, he recognizes them. But he wants to play some silly game with them, so he feigns ignorance, accuses them of being spies, arrests Simeon, and send the others back to fetch Benjamin, who is left with his father in Hebron. But since Jacob has already lost his first son of his favourite wife Rachel (Joseph), he opts to keep Benjamin (Rachel’s second son) in Hebron, and lets Simeon rot in jail in Egypt.